Beware: Travel fraud becoming rampant on social media

Pol Maj Gen Surachet Hakpal, deputy commissioner of Tourist Police, said police had arrested Apinporn Pongpreechawong on Wednesday for allegedly swindling 35 people out of 1.08 million baht (US$34,562) for a promised nine-day trip to Turkey.

In Thailand, arrests have been made in three new cases involving alleged fraudulent services by travel agents over social media that affected more than 100 people and amounted in losses of several million baht.

Pol Maj Gen Surachet Hakpal, deputy commissioner of Tourist Police, said police had arrested Apinporn Pongpreechawong on Wednesday for allegedly swindling 35 people out of 1.08 million baht (US$34,562) for a promised nine-day trip to Turkey.

The travellers had booked their trips with Pongpreechawong through social media, costing 31,000 baht each, Bangkok Post reported.

The trip, which travellers had paid for in advance, was scheduled for March 23 to 31. The trip never happened, and Pongpreechawong could not be contacted.

Another case involving 33 Thai tourists on a trip to Japan saw the arrest of Sonthaya Posri. The tourists had flown to Japan on February 2 and were due to return on February 6, and had paid a total of 1.18 million baht for the trip.

They were abandoned at a restaurant in Osaka after they were unable to pay the bill for their tour bus, and were told that the suspect’s company had not paid for the bus service.

The travellers sought help from local police after the bus company withheld their luggage and passports; they also had to fork out about 135,000 baht more while waiting for their return flight on February 6.

Following this episode, Posri had failed to compensate them and later could not be contacted, Pol Maj Gen Surachet said.

In the third case, 49 people reported that they were cheated of 20,000-30,000 baht for a planned trip to the Maldives in March by two women.

The victims were promised via social media that they would be able to seek employment as masseuses at a hotel in the Maldives, with food, accommodation and income guaranteed. But the trip did not come to pass after victims had fully paid for the trip.

It is believed that at least 100 people have been taken in by the fraud, The two suspects in this case remain at large.